


Middle School Girlfriend

by patchfire, raving_liberal



Series: Story of Three Boys [4]
Category: Glee
Genre: Gen, Middle School, Pinn Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-21
Updated: 2013-05-21
Packaged: 2017-12-12 13:43:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/812223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patchfire/pseuds/patchfire, https://archiveofourown.org/users/raving_liberal/pseuds/raving_liberal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn can't figure out why Puck is mad (and neither can Puck).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Middle School Girlfriend

Hailey Reinhardt is one of the most annoying girls at Lima North Middle. Puck doesn’t understand how he hadn’t realized that before the past few weeks, but it’s definitely true. Most of the girls at school are annoying, but Hailey is somehow worse than the rest of them. Her gum pops louder, she spends more time twirling her hair, her giggles are more shrill, and Puck has no idea why on earth Finn wants to go to the dance with Hailey Reinhardt, of all people. 

But he is, and Hailey seems to think that means she can walk up to Finn and start a conversation at any moment, and when Puck goes over to Finn’s locker after last period, so they can walk to football practice together, like they do every Monday and Wednesday and Friday, Hailey’s standing there, giggling and twirling her hair and offering Finn a piece of gum. 

“It’s sour apple, Finn!” Hailey says with another of her giggles.

“Cool, thanks,” Finn says. 

“You’ll have to spit it out in a minute,” Puck points out. “Are you trying to kill him?” he says to Hailey. “If he chews gum on the field, he could choke on it.” Or at least that’s what his mom and Finn’s mom and Coach have all told them. Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not, but Puck bets Hailey didn’t think about it. 

Hailey pouts and doesn’t answer Puck, just looks at Finn in a way that’s probably supposed to be pitiful. Puck wonders if Finn’s done something stupid beyond just asking her to the dance, like asking her to go out with him. 

“Oh yeah,” Finn says. “I guess so, huh?”

“Here, I’ll put it in my jeans until after practice,” Puck offers, taking the piece of gum from Finn and putting it in his pocket, just like he said. 

“Don’t forget to get your gum after practice, Finn,” Hailey says. “I’ll talk to you tonight!”

“Ok, cool,” Finn responds. 

Hailey smiles at Finn and walks away, popping her gum again, and Puck gives Finn a look. “Tonight?” he asks. 

“Yeah, she’s calling me, I guess?” Finn say, shrugging. “She talks kinda fast, so I’m only mostly sure that’s what she said.”

“She wants to go out with you,” Puck decides. “I bet she’s been doing that heart-initials thing.”

“Huh. That’s cool, I guess. Right?”

“No, dude.” Puck starts heading towards the gym. “You’ll end up like one of the guys on Nana Connie’s soap operas. She’ll glare at you for talking to other girls and tell you to stop doing other stuff.” Puck frowns, because he’s never paid _that_ much attention to Nana Connie’s soap operas, but he remembers one woman being upset that her boyfriend spent too much time on his car. Finn doesn’t have a car, though. He does have a bike. “Like riding your bike,” Puck adds, nodding definitively. “You don’t want to get tied down.”

“She’s gonna tie me to my bike?” Finn asks, wide-eyed. 

“No, of course—” Puck stops himself, because he doesn’t actually know what all of it really means. “Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe? Probably more like talk on the phone a lot.”

“Mom doesn’t let me talk on the phone for more than thirty minutes because it makes my ears hurt,” Finn says. 

Puck shrugs. “I don’t know then.” Finn doesn’t seem to think it’d be horrible to go out with Hailey, even though she’s super-annoying, and when they walk into the locker room to change, Puck falls behind Finn and tosses Hailey’s sour apple gum in the trash. He bets Finn won’t even remember it, and Puck’s heard enough gum popping already. “Maybe just go to the dance with her for now?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Finn agrees. “Who are you going with?”

“I don’t know.” Puck scowls and pulls off his T-shirt. He’d been planning on showing up and not going with anyone, just like the last dance, but now Finn’s going with Hailey, which means she probably won’t let Finn hang out with Finn around the food. “Maybe I won’t go.”

“You have to go! If I’m going, you’ve gotta go. That’s, like, a _rule_ or something,” Finn says. 

“You won’t notice, you’ll be dancing with Haiii-lllley,” Puck sing-songs. “All of the songs.”

“Do you think she’s really gonna want to dance?” Finn asks, looking uncomfortable. 

“Remember last time?” Puck asks. “Billy looked miserable with Jessica.”

“Maybe Hailey’ll just want to hang out with her friends,” Finn says. 

Puck makes a face. “Ew. See, I’m not going to go with anyone who wants me to hang out and, I don’t know. Chew gum or giggle or whatever.”

Finn frowns. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with gum.”

“If I’m going to take a girl, I don’t want to hang out with her friends.” Puck pauses. “I want to see some, you know. _Action_.” Puck’s not sure any of the girls at Lima North are willing to do anything except some tongue-kissing, but that sounds better than giggling a lot and putting up with a whole group of them doing it. 

“Oh, I don’t think I’m gonna see any action at the dance,” Finn says. “So maybe you’re right.”

“Sorry, man,” Puck says, starting to get out his uniform for practice. “Guess I should’ve warned you about that.”

“I guess I still have to go, though.” Finn pulls his uniform out of his bag and starts changing. “It would be rude not to. You should go to the dance so I don’t have to hang out by myself while Hailey talks to her friends.”

“Maybe. Like I said, I’m not going to take just any girl.” Puck shrugs, finishing with his uniform and sitting down to put on his cleats. “So then I might not be available for hanging out,” he adds, smirking a little. 

“Well, I guess if you can get action, you probably should,” Finn says, nodding his head. “I just hope I don’t have to dance too much. I’d probably step on her toes and then she’d get mad at me and yell at me.”

“Good luck, dude,” Puck offers, standing up. “Ready to play?”

“Yeah. At least _football_ isn’t complicated,” Finn says.

Puck nods. “Yeah, exactly.”

 

“Hi Finn.” Hailey smiles at Finn, then frowns a little. “I’ve had the worst luck today!”

“Oh yeah? Did you lose your homework or something?” Finn asks. 

“That would be better,” Hailey says, shaking her head. For once, she’s not chewing gum. “No, so, I get to school, and my locker combination doesn’t work! I went to get help in the office, and they double-checked it, but somehow, the combination _changed_. The janitor had to get it open, and I can’t use it the rest of the week until they replace the lock with one that someone knows the combination to.”

“That sucks,” Finn says. “You sure you didn’t just forget it?”

Hailey shakes her head. “The office lady like, triple-checked it. She couldn’t get it open, and the janitor checked _his_ records and he couldn’t get it open, either. But he said it happened to someone else’s locker a few weeks ago, and they never figured out why.” 

“That’s really weird.” Finn shakes his head. “I guess you’ll have to carry all your books in your backpack for the rest of the week.”

“Yeah, it sucks.” Hailey sighs. “That wasn’t the worst part, though. I was walking down the hall between second and third period, and I got _gum_ in my hair somehow.”

“Well, you chew a lot of gum,” Finn offers. “Maybe you left a piece of it on something. Do you ever stick it under the desk or anything?”

“No!” Hailey glares at him. “God, Finn. I was walking down the hall! Someone behind me had to blow a bubble or something, and then was too much of a bitch to own up to it. I bet it was Emily. She’s been mad at me since the dance.”

Finn isn’t sure why Emily would be mad at Hailey, but maybe there’s just something about school dances that pisses people off, because Puck’s been acting weird ever since then, too. He didn’t even show up until the dance was almost over—which was way too long, as far as Finn’s concerned—and in the four days since the dance, he’s kind of been a jerk to Finn. It’s true that Finn didn’t see any action at the dance, and it’s true he spent most of the night standing around while Hailey talked to her friends, but there wasn’t really any reason for Puck to be so mean about it.

“Yeah, that sucks,” Finn says.

“And they had to take me to the cafeteria and use _peanut butter_ to get the gum out. I’ve smelled like peanut butter all day long,” Hailey complains. “Can you still smell it?”

“Yeah, that’s really sucky,” Finn says, still thinking about Puck and what it is Finn might have done to piss him off so bad.

“Finn!” Hailey stamps one foot angrily. “I asked if you could still smell the peanut butter!”

“Oh, yeah, is somebody eating a PB and J, do you think?”

Hailey throws her hands up in the air. “God, are you stupid?” she asks. 

“Hey,” Puck suddenly says from behind Finn. “What’s going on, Finn?”

“I don’t know!” Finn says. “We were just talking about peanut butter. Or maybe it was bubble gum? Or, I dunno. Both?”

“Now I’m hungry. You want to walk down to the Eckerd and get a snack?” Puck suggests.

Finn gives Puck a hard look, but Puck doesn’t seem to be mad anymore. “Sure,” Finn says, shrugging. “We should get some peanut butter and some jelly and make sandwiches.”

“Awesome.” Puck claps his hand on Finn’s shoulder and starts to steer him down the hallway. 

“Finn! I wasn’t through talking to you!” Hailey calls after them. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow!” Finn says, waving at her without turning around. 

“Finn!” she says again, but doesn’t continue. 

“Not calling every night?” Puck asks. 

“Nah, Mom wouldn’t let me use the phone that much even if I wanted to,” Finn says. “Besides, what am I supposed to talk about to somebody every night? You probably run out of stuff to say to somebody after a while.”

For some reason, Puck grins for a few moments as they head outside and to the sidewalk. “Yeah, I guess most people, you probably would.”


End file.
